India vs New Zealand Live Score 3rd Test Day 1: IND, NZ run out in Mumbai heat

India vs New Zealand Live Score 3rd Test Day 1: Washington Sundar took two wickets in the first session

It has been 20 years since India came to a Test match in a home series having already lost it, and that too at the Wankhede Stadium. It was the fourth Test against Australia, where the visitors had already won the first and third matches of the series. India produced a rank turner at the time, resulting in the match lasting just three days and the hosts winning by 13 runs.

If reports are to be believed, there will also be a reverse at the Wankhede Stadium for the third Test between India and New Zealand, despite the hosts having also lost the second match in Pune on a reverse pitch. The home team’s management has asked the Mumbai Cricket Association to prepare a pitch that will “help spinners from Day 1”. The presence of red earth will help with sufficient rejection beyond the spin. The track in Pune, on the other hand, was a slow turner.

What was different about the previous instances of India losing a Test at home due to a batting error against spin bowling compared to what happened in Pune was that their leading spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were overtaken by them, who played for the opposition. Both Jadeja and Ashwin have been successful at the Wankhede Stadium. In five Tests, Ashwin has picked up 38 wickets at 18.42, the highest figure by any bowler on this ground. In his only game, Ravindra Jadeja also got six wickets.

The last time India lost all their matches in a Test series at home was in February 2000 when South Africa beat them 2-0. India’s defeat in the first Test of the current series marked the first time they had lost to New Zealand at home in the format since 1988. Their loss in the second marked the first time ever that they had lost a Test series at home to New Zealand. It also ended a record 18-game winning streak at home. The first Test had conditions much closer to home for the Kiwis, with the visitors using only pacers in India’s first innings and bowling them out for a record-low 46 runs. Moreover, India staged an extraordinary comeback in the second innings.

The loss in the second Test, followed by Rohit’s comments in the post-match press conference, brought in some proper brickbats for India. It was conditions India supposedly thrived in. But Washington Sundar’s seven-wicket haul was matched and surpassed by Mitchell Santner, while their batsmen seemed to have no answer to the Kiwi spinners other than trying to bowl them out.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir, whose tenure has suffered a loss in its first Test series, reiterated that India must be a batting adaptation team. “We should be able to adapt. We should be a side that can get 400 in one day if we need to get a result and able to bat for two days too. That’s what growth is and that’s what Test cricket is all about,” Gambhir told reporters on Thursday.

“Test cricket cannot be played in one way because it is about adaptability, looking at the situation and playing to the situation and more importantly, it is about playing sessions. If we can start learning how to play sessions, with the quality, we have in our batting line-up, I think if we play 4-1/2 sessions, we will have a lot of runs on the board,” Gambhir said.

India vs New Zealand 3rd Test Day 1 Highlights:

– New Zealand were 92/3 in 27 overs at lunch

– Washington Sundar got the wickets of Tom Latham and Rachin Ravindra

– Akash Deep got an early breakthrough for the hosts, dismissed Devon Conway in the 4th over

– India have rested Jasprit Bumrah

– New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first

– India have already lost the series but are now looking to avoid a rare whitewash at home

– India have been whitewashed at home only once in Test history and that was a 2-0 defeat against South Africa in 2000